I promised i'd read my friends story as "creative input'. he wants to make sure his story is not immediately disliked upon publishing. the perspective of the story is first person omniscient. essentially meaning that the character telling the story is aware of the thoughts and emotions of other characters.

that's ok.

But my issue is that he is incorporating narrative elements from the third person omniscient perspective with the first person omniscient perspective at the same time.

so basically you have an all knowing character retelling in the first perspective past events but in the present tense.

the best way I can describe what reading his story is like would be like reading a self inert fic or hearing a person talking about a sequence of past events to a listener. I keep telling him that this perspective will only confuse readers but he says that it's ok because he added a disclaimer stating that the point of view would "seem" like third person omniscient but actually is In the first.

if someone writes in a certain point of view, should they abide by that style of point of view?

Really bizarre POV games like that are one of those things that can seriously sink a story's popularity. People will find it unusual, odd, different, and potentially confusing, no matter what explanations you give. It doesn't guarantee instant hatred, but for many readers it will be a mark against the story, as they'll find it harder to read than the type of story they're used to.

So it depends on his goals, I suppose. Is the point to write experimental literature, or is the point to write a story that readers will enjoy? If he just wants to play with weird formats, there's nothing wrong with that. But it will definitely make getting a readership for the story much more difficult, so if that's a major goal for this writer, then I would really recommend against it.

Also, putting readership aside, that kind of weird-ass messing around with POV is really difficult to do well. Add in writing in the present tense, which also tends to be difficult, and this guy is setting himself a serious uphill climb to get a good story out of it all.

Just my two cents, of course, I'm not all-knowing. But I do have a decent amount of writing experience.

5837739 Even in the first person present PoV, you still have a character noticing things.

Twilight is mighty sexy, laying on that pile of books. Good thing she's reading and doesn't see me watching.

If it's all-knowing, you can describe things that are out of his view and perhaps even thoughts.

"Rarity goes to the bathroom, believing she'll get the privacy she needs. If she learned I was there with her, she might have some trouble scratching that itch... Actually, she'd find enjoyment in it. Oh, you kinky mare you!"

If it's a past event, however, I'd describe it in past tense. Not in present tense.

It would help if you posted some of the examples, though.

Its my understanding that often times first person omniscient is similar to having a narrator telling a story about something that happened earlier in the narrators life, but he is telling the story in a first person point of view (his view specifically), and he is using the benefit of hind sight to fill in gaps of information (for the reader to know) that he originally did not have. Still though even in the present time the narrator may still not know all of the details behind a particular event in his life (so there can still be information gaps, such as gaps that occur naturally in first POV), or he may not want to remember (or tell) all of the details behind the event. Also perhaps the narrator may have a different opinion on a subject in the present than what he had in the past (the story he is retelling), so he may sometimes interject with his current feelings.
That is my experience with first person omniscient.

Forrest Gump swaps from First person point of view to Third person quite often. So in a ways it can be considered to be similar to first person omniscient.